Beyond the Headlines: Uncovering the Real Impact of the CrowdStrike Outage
When cybersecurity company CrowdStrike delivered a faulty sensor configuration update last year, major disruption swept the globe, with 8.5 million devices affected. Although the outage lasted just a few hours, the impact was felt on a global scale, spanning industries from government, healthcare and finance to airlines, retailers, and SMEs.
The incident uncovered hidden truths about a lack of resilience in the IT infrastructures of some of the world's most trusted and critical organisations. So, when digital transformation technology and solutions provider, Adaptavist, told us this would be a watershed moment for IT teams and software developers, we knew there was an important story waiting to be told.
The Approach
Immediate headlines were dominated by the widespread ‘chaos’ and ‘confusion’; the noise was deafening, with highly speculative commentary muddying the waters. Soon after, the rhetoric shifted to blame. One memorable headline came from Ian King, who asked, ‘Who will pay for the worst IT outage the world has seen?’.
As disruptors, we were naturally intrigued as to whether there was a different angle to draw out. We wanted to explore focusing less on pointing fingers and more on finding substantiating, relevant evidence on how organisations were responding to the incident and what it would mean for the future. TFD recognised that this presented a unique opportunity to create a differentiated perspective for Adaptavist and demonstrate its software engineering expertise.
We commissioned third-party research via Censuswide on behalf of Adaptavist to examine how the incident might fuel changes in software engineering practices across three key regions - the US, UK, and Germany.
First, we drafted a series of questions focused on the how. What state were organisations' incident response plans in before the incident? What investments were they making? How were they hiring? And, crucially, have priorities shifted since the incident?
However, to craft a new, compelling story that would be valuable to journalists and Adaptavist customers, we also needed to explore the why. We dug into the nuances of crisis management, asking about attitudes, behaviours, and culture: Are organisations practicing radical candour? Do developers feel empowered to speak up? Do they prioritise speed over quality? The results were illuminating.
The Results
The research uncovered a series of key findings that shone a light on software engineering practices, challenges, and opportunities in the wake of the incident:
- 84% of organisations didn’t have adequate incident response plans before the incident; only 16% of those that did found them effective
- 78% report extremely positive outcomes following the incident, with 41% now confident they can prevent a similar incident from affecting their systems
- The majority of organisations plan to boost investment in cybersecurity training (88%), incident response training (86%), and new hires (86%)
- 83% are looking to diversify software and service providers to mitigate future risk, with open source adoption set to surge
- 40% admit fear of acknowledging mistakes, while 44% believe that lack of psychological safety is hindering innovation
Once we completed our analysis of the findings, we crafted three press releases featuring the relevant data to offer the media deeper, more credible, and substantiated insights into the topic. We drafted a special report from Adaptavist, which contextualised the research findings and provided practical advice and a roadmap for organisations looking to improve their digital resilience. These assets were shared with relevant journalists at business and technology trade publications.
Results:
- 56 total pieces of media coverage in key markets: 16 X UK / 16 North America / 15 X Germany
- 3 X pieces of national coverage, including a dedicated feature in tier-one business publication Raconteur
- 3 X interviews for Adaptavist spokespeople
- 45% of coverage in tier 1 publications
- 832.9 million potential reach
- 23 X backlinks
- Peaks in web traffic correlated with each of the press releases issued, as well as when coverage appeared in tier 1 titles
At TFD, we’re all about impact. We don’t do things for the sake of doing them; we carefully consider our approach and think realistically about the outcomes.
We understand the projects that really create value for our clients, their customers, and journalists. Marrying credible data and insights with topical issues has always been a recipe for success, but it’s not always easy to get right.
Katie Finn, one of our Directors and the lead on this project, said:
“Research can be a powerful tool, but its impact hinges on having a clear, compelling story - that’s why investment in the planning stage is critical. Without it, the insights risk being lost or overlooked. To succeed, research must offer real value to journalists and the market and offer a fresh perspective on an issue beyond self-serving agendas.
This campaign showed the impact the right data angle can have. Beyond the initial engagement, Adpatavist’s research is now frequently referenced on social media and in subsequent articles, showing how it has established a leadership position for the Company on a major issue. At a time when companies were clamouring to contribute to the conversation, it enabled Adaptavist to stand out from the crowd.”
Maritess Cruz Goellnitz, Head of Marketing at Adaptavist said:
“As experts in digital transformation, we have vast first-hand experience in helping organisations to overcome the barriers to stronger digital resilience. We know better than most how outages can affect businesses, and we saw this as a chance to spark a meaningful industry conversation rooted in insight, not speculation.
TFD helped amplify our expertise in this space and give something back to the industry by providing both verified insights and practical advice. Their strategic guidance was instrumental in driving media engagement and long-term brand value on a topic that was not only timely, but close to the heart of what we’re trying to achieve at Adaptavist.”
